You need to stop waiting for feelings and start actively seeking Him through His Word and presence. When you prioritize God over comfort and entertainment, you will find your spiritual appetite restored and His Spirit flowing without limit. Take the step today to yoke yourself to Jesus and invite the Holy Spirit to create a deeper desire in your heart.
Here, I'm going to turn it over to pastor, doctor, husband, David John Phillips junior. I don't know about that, all them titles. My name is David John Phillips. I have the joy and honor of getting to be the pastor here. There is no place I'd rather be.
There's nothing I'd rather be doing. Every time I get to preach, that's what I say and I mean it with all of my heart. And I pray that you encounter the love of Jesus in a very real way. You encounter his power and his presence in such a way that it leaves you wanting more, Hungry for him. *Amen*?
That's that's the goal of the message today, by the way. The goal of the message today, my my prayer is that every 1 of you leaves here hungry for more of him. "Thirsty for more" of him. Yes, he does satisfy when you take a drink of the water as he says, his water, you'll never thirst again, but yet it's amazing, like you're you can be completely satisfied in him and at the same time be left craving more. My fear, my my concern for the American church is that we're so spiritually emaciated, skinny spiritually because we haven't eaten, haven't taken in good nutrients consistently, that there's no hunger anymore.
There's no thirst after him. I don't want that to be anybody in this church. Anybody that walks through these doors, I want I want what happens here to create such a hunger and a thirst for the real things of God, for more of him that there's there's something real that can impact every aspect of your life and his name is Jesus. And he loves you and he cares for you and there's more than what you're currently experiencing. There's always more.
He's eternal. He's drawing you into a deeper relationship with him. Amen? Amen. Just so I can get this out of the way, I'm not going for a preaching Grammy today.
So you know. I may not say anything that you've never heard before today, and I'm good with it because my goal is not to impress you. My prayer is that you're hungering for more of him after today. So God's put some scriptures on my heart, a few testimonies, probably been through multiple times, the scriptures with you. But once again, I'm not trying to say anything that you've never heard.
I don't want you walking want you walking away saying, man, that dude is a skillful speaker. And to be honest, I am. I mean, I have been trained in speaking since I was fifth grade. I traveled to DC when I was 4 15 years old and was trained by politic political people in Washington DC on how to do impromptu speaking and how to do this and that, and and got to travel, you know, throughout my high schools speaking. And and I I I have been trained to have skill in speaking.
Speaking is a skill. And if you're a speaker, you should develop the skill of speaking. But today, I'm not after just making you think, wow, he's a skillful speaker. I want you to experience the power of God. In a generation that is hungry for something real, I don't want you to just come and experience religion.
I don't wanna just give you "head knowledge" from from scripture, and I could. And you could be like, man, that's something new I've never seen in the depths of that verse in Lamentations. And he didn't make me cry. Anyway, I want you to experience the power of God, and that's something that I can't manufacture. No 1 can.
But when we lean on him and we risk it, we go by faith, he moves in such a powerful way. He's "worth seeking" after. *Hebrews-11:6* says, without faith, it's impossible to please God because you must believe that he is. 1 version says he exists, but the literal translation is you must believe that he is and he is a rewarder of those who **diligently Seek him**. Those who diligently Seek him.
So first, you must believe that he is. Heavy revi, as I'm going through that, wait a second, that he is, well, he is I am that I am. I am what? I am whatever you need in every situation. I am all good and have nothing but good for you, if you'll just lean into me, is what he's saying.
You must believe that he is exactly what you need for whatever situation, whatever thing that you're going through. He is what you were created for. He is who you were created to have a relationship for. You must believe that He is and He is worth going after. He's a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him.
Another version says, continually, continuously seek Him. You wanna know how much faith you have? Your faith is mirrored by how you seek him. Your lack of faith is mirrored by how you don't. Man, I I want *God* to create such hunger in me.
There have been seasons in my life where I didn't feel hungry for God. And you know what my prayer was? I recognized my lack of hunger. You know what my prayer was? Some of you need to pray this prayer.
*Lord God*, I I want to want you. I need to need you. I recognize I I don't feel like going after you. God, would you create in me a desire for you? You know what you need to do in those situations?
I I I've said this before, and many of the things I'm gonna say today, I've said before, but when I don't feel like I love my wife, I love her. Don't get me wrong. But when I don't have that feeling of love, you know why? It's because I haven't been loving her. Love is sacrificing yourself for the sake of another, so I haven't been doing things to sacrifice myself for her sake.
Instead, I've been loving myself. So in order to feel a feeling of love, all I need to do is step out of myself and go love her, which usually for me looks like doing the dishes. And the gutters. By the way, I did the gutters yesterday. I really love her.
You start stepping outside of yourself and and and loving your wife, the feeling of love will come back. You don't feel like you wanna be around your kids? It's probably because you haven't been being around your kids and loving them while you're there. You're probably in it for you and for too long. Step outside of yourself and go love them well.
Do something that they wanna do, sacrificing yourself for them sake, their sake, and the feeling of enjoyment and love for your kids will come back. So how does that replicate in your relationship with God? Same thing. You're lacking desire for him. You're lacking hunger.
It's probably because you haven't been loving him. We love because he first loved us, which means we probably have a lack of an understanding of how much he really loves us. Have a head knowledge, but not a heart knowledge. Maybe you went through some trial or some situation, some scenario that caused you to doubt his goodness and his love that he's really worth going after. Without faith, it's impossible to please *God* because you must believe that he is.
He is worth it. And he's a rewarder of those who diligently seek him. If you're not experiencing the reward, it's probably because you haven't been seeking. How do you create hunger? You eat.
If you go on a diet and you don't eat for a while, your stomach shrinks and your hunger lessens. Right? You have less hunger because you haven't been putting anything in, and that's good for some of us. It's important. Spiritually, it's not not good.
Some some people have been fasting from God for weeks, and you've lost your hunger and your thirst. What do you need to do? Go eat. Get in the word. Start worshiping him again.
Intentionally, get in his presence. Your flesh is not going to want to and it's going to fight you. You're going to be tired and exhausted all of a sudden when you have the thought to go get in the word. Your flesh is going to be at war with you because the flesh is at war with the spirit so that you don't do what you want. Your flesh wants to starve you from the things of the spirit so that it can get strong and overwhelm you.
But you are not those who live by the flesh. You are those who live by the So live by the spirit. And you won't desire the things of the flesh anymore. But if you've been living by the flesh, you've probably been starving the spirit and so you've lost your spiritual hunger. It's time to repent and get back to the things of the Lord.
To hunger after him so you can receive the reward. What is the reward? More of him. More of his goodness in every scenario, in every situation. If you're only halfway seeking after him for 2 hours a week on on a Sunday, or hour and a half, or an hour, you're spiritually emaciated.
You're dying. What does it look like to really have *faith* that he is, and that he is a rewarder of those who diligently seek him? It says, seek, I remember the King James version because I grew up with that 1 on this 1, seek ye, seek ye, first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added unto you. Our hunger too often is for all these things, so our seeking of him is for all these things instead of for him. What does it look like to seek him first?
Part of what it looks like is to seek him first in your day. To reorient all of your priorities, all of your excuses to where the time with him is what's most important because you understand that you live from that. To reorient everything where you're hungry for your first meal with him, your first drink of his of your presence. That's what your whole day is oriented around. But I I don't just think it's a time thing.
I don't I mean, that's important. I would I would encourage you to do that first every day, and don't be condemned if you miss a miss a day doing it first, but find a time throughout the day if you miss it. But I I think it's so much more than that. If he is, without faith it's impossible to please him because you first must believe that he is. If he is, then he is exactly what you need at your job.
What if you seek him first in all the decisions you make at your job? Maybe you would have the wisdom of God in what you're doing. I was watching an interview with the president of El Salvador, I think. And his first line of business was to seek the wisdom of God for his nation. And it's like his economy, everything was turned around because he was walking in the wisdom of God because he put what should be first first.
The interviewer was like, I've never seen this before. Why would you? I don't understand. He's like, it's because people put themselves first instead of him first. The will of the people in my in my nation want us want me to seek after God, so why wouldn't I?
Ain't that cool? Yeah. What what would it look like for you to seek him first in every area of your life? What would it look like for you to hunger and thirst after what he says in his presence in every area of your life? Problem is, I think most Americans hunger and thirst after comfort and entertainment first.
And you can see if that's you by your time and your finances. Do you focus first on comfort and entertainment or going after him? Is your God, your idol comfort and entertainment or is your idol your God, Jesus? Comfort's a great thing. Praise the Lord for the comforts that we have have have in our society.
I mean, we have a lot of people that have are using their creative giftings in order to create all of this amazing stuff. And I'm not downing that. I love couches. I love TV. I love all of these things.
But if it becomes a distraction from your relationship with the Lord, it's become an idol. Anything that you have to have, you need to fast. Anything that you have to have in order to feel peace or joy, you need to fast. I wanna hunger and thirst for him first and enjoy all of the blessings he gives me as blessing he blessings he gives me with a heart of gratitude. Not like a spoiled brat that needs them.
*Amen*? Amen. I'm not mad at you guys. I love you. I just want to create a hunger for God and the things of him in you because this has been stirring in me, man.
You want the reward. I want the reward. Are we willing to go after him? Is he worth seeking to you? He is.
Check this out. Let's go to *2 Corinthians-1* and verse 20. For no matter how many promises God has made, they are yes in Christ. And so through him the amen is spoken by us to the glory of God. There are a lot of promises that God has made, like a whole lot.
This thing is full of promises, and guess what? Every single 1 of them in *Christ* for you is yes. Everyone. What does it require? Faith in his word.
And we say, amen. Which means let it be. Which means yes. We "say amen". We say yes to what his word says, so that we can experience his promise in and through our life for the glory of God as a testimony to others.
Problem is, bible also says my people perish for lack of knowledge. My people are destroyed for a lack of knowledge. So not having a hunger to know the promises of God results in us not experiencing the promise of promises of God because we're ignorant of his promises and how they work in our lives, and so we're not able to say amen to them and experience the fullness of the promises that he has for us. Because of a lack of hunger, a lack of seeking to know what he's saying. And don't get me wrong, you might have heard a promise and have a head knowledge of it and be like, well, I tried that but it didn't work in my life.
My question is this, do you judge the promises of God by how it's going? Or do you judge how it's going by the promises of God? Well, you can't judge how it's going by the promises of God if you don't know them. So if you're not daily and diligently getting in your word, the bible says, to renew your mind. Trend Your life is transformed by the "renewing of your mind".
What are you renewing your mind to? To his promises. I'm renewing my mind to what he says about who I am and what he says about who he is. Because the more that I see him as he is, the more I am like him in this world. 1 John-4:17, in this world we are like Jesus.
*1 John-2* says, all who have this hope in him purify themselves just as he is pure. But we make excuses as to why that's not possible. Quit making excuses and get hungry. And go after him so you can experience more of him in your life. He loves you and it's an invitation.
Like, you you've heard us say over and over over, it's the glory of God to conceal a matter and it's the glory of kings to search it out. God's concealed his promises in his word for you, not from you. As an invitation like a kid on an Easter egg hunt to go after them, which shows that you you think he's worth seeking after. But if you're not going after him, you don't really know how good he is. He's infinitely more good than you think.
I'm still learning how good my God is. He's worth going after. He's worth seeking. I got another crazy 1. Psalm 1 19 verse 1 11.
It's good. You guys okay? Oh, yeah. Your *testimonies* are my **heritage forever** for they are the "joy of my heart". The testimonies of *God* are my heritage because they are the joy of my heart.
My heritage means my possession because I'm an heir to them. Every testimony that you've ever heard that Jesus has done in someone or through someone is your possession, your heritage as an heir of *God* because he's no respecter of persons. Do you do you do you grasp that? Not just that. It goes bigger than that.
Every testimony that you see of how God has worked in someone or through someone in the word is your heritage in Christ. That's hard for some people to believe. But when I see how God has worked in someone or through someone, I realize, wait a second, I have the same Holy Spirit operating on me and in my life. And man, it's my joy to get to hear about what you're doing. I'm celebrating God, what you're doing in their lives.
I'm celebrating what you did in this. And Lord God, as "I'm ready", father, would you work that out in me? Give me the faith. Stretch my faith to be able to see those same things in my life, not for my glory, but for your glory. So everyone around can see my life and experience your goodness through it.
*God, I'm hungry. Show me your promises. Let me hear your testimonies*. That's why every Sunday morning when our dream team gets together, I'm asking for testimonies. They're the joy of my heart.
Because when I see God working in someone in a way that I haven't experienced, I wanna learn from it and it stretched my faith so I can experience him in the same way. I wanna be hungry for God in those ways. My prayer is that this stirs your hunger, your thirst for him. My fear is that we miss out on the promises of God because we don't know them or we doubt that He can't work in the same way in our life and that would prevent you from really seeking after him because you wouldn't think that he would reward you in the same way, which means you don't really understand the value of what Jesus did for you. When you really have faith in the sacrifice that Jesus made for your for for you, like he made it possible for you to be adopted as a son, a son of God.
Born again, born of the spirit where you have the nature of your heavenly father. Watch this. You've heard this verse over and over if you've been coming here. This this passage, but it's amazing. *2 Peter-1*.
Check this out. Verse 2. May grace and peace. Everybody say grace. And peace.
Grace is God's empowerment, empowering you to do what you can't do on your own and to be who you can't be on your own. *Peace*. Everybody needs peace in the midst of this crazy world. Watch. May grace and peace be multiplied to you in the knowledge of God and of Jesus Christ our Lord.
Are you lacking peace and grace? Let this message create a hunger for you to go after the knowledge of *God* and of Jesus Christ our Lord. To seek out his wisdom in the word. To listen to messages. To get into books that are helping you to understand so that you can know God more.
Because as you know him more, you will have *peace* and *grace* multiplied under your life. Are you lacking peace and grace? That's an invitation to know God more. Because as you know him more, you will be rewarded with more peace and more grace. How do you know him more?
Seek him and you will find. Ask in the door and it will be given to you. Knock in the door will be opened. For everyone who asks, it's given. Everyone who seeks, finds.
And everyone who knocks, the door is opened. Those words are a continuous seeking, a continuous acting act asking, a continuous knocking. Some people just knocked and asked and sought and didn't happen in their timing so they went back to what they were knocking and asking and seeking for in other places. I'll say this, you've been receiving whatever you've been consistently seeking after. You look at the last 20 years of your life, and in a lot of areas of your life, the fruit of what you have is the result of what you've been consistently seeking after over the last 20 years.
What if what if everything shifted today and you started putting him first in every area of your life and not taking no for an answer, not taking not taking any circumstance, not allowing any circumstance to knock you back, but instead of "falling forward" into a deeper seeking and hungering after after him for the next 20 years. Let that be the most consistent thing in your life. I promise, you're gonna hear him more clearly. You're gonna be rewarded with more of an experience of his grace and peace in every area of your life and you will be blessed. He's worth it.
He's worth giving your whole life to and going after. If you don't think so, you might as well quit now. Go eat, drink, be merry because tomorrow we die. Don't play half in and half out with this Christian thing. Be all in or be all out.
Fall in line with the the King of Kings or fall out. It's the half in and half outs that cause the world to run from Jesus. It's those that are hungry and seeking after him that cause the world to say, man, we need him. It's too late in the game to to not be hungry. It's too late in the game to not go all in and seek after him.
It's too late. We need a church, guys, that's running after him. You are. It's an honor to get to be your pastor. I'm just stirring a hunger.
That's it. Verse 3, let's keep going. Watch this. His divine power has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness. All things, guys.
This is a promise. His divine power has already, because of Jesus, granted to you to me all things that pertain to life and godliness. You have everything you need in him. If you're not experiencing it, it's an invitation to seek after it. To seek after him, to know him more in that area where you're not experiencing the character and nature of God, or the power of God.
You realize God is powerful. It's not just a character thing, it's a power thing. If we only preach the gospel so that people can can be better people, we're missing it. It's the power of God unto salvation. To do the same things Jesus did in this life, and Jesus said even greater.
Does he transform our character? Yes. Does he give us the power to heal the sick? Yes. Does he transform our character?
Yes. Does he give us the power to cast out demons? Yes. I was on a Me and me and Robbie and Alex, we we our staff went on a retreat this week to a conference, Destiny Leaders Conference, and it was amazing. It was refreshing and exhausting all at the same time because it was so fun, good, and we learned a lot.
On Tuesday, we did some staff training, and then part of that training was in on evangelism, and as a staff, we went out into the streets of Houston to share the gospel. As we're driving to this mall that we put on our maps, I get a call from Daniel Salem from Pakistan, the guy that we're we we ministered to in Pakistan. He says I answer the phone, he says, oh, brother. I can't do his accent, but he says, we we need you to pray. We have a a woman who's who's possessed in our house.
She's demonized is the words he used. She's a part of our church and and things, but but she's wanting to kill herself and and and struggling with multiple things. Would you pray? And I said, put her on the phone. I'm I'm driving to the place we're about to go outreach, and I'm talking to this Pakistani lady through Daniel's interpretation and I just begin to ask her some certain questions.
Because by the way, there's some of you in here that are oppressed with demons and you don't even know it. There's areas of your life where you have a continuous lack of peace or addictions that won't stop and you don't know why and it's because you opened the door way back in the day that you you never closed the door on, you you maybe you were raped as a kid and and you never forgave or or maybe you started playing and messing with Ouija boards or mediums or or witches and other things and that opens the door to the demonic to come in and and wreak havoc on your life. About 50% of the people that I pray for that are oppressed with demons, it's because of unforgiveness. Somebody hurt you and you thought it was okay to not forgive them when God forgave you. And that opened the door to demonic activity in your life and you're circling the drain in different areas of your life because you haven't forgiven and you're oppressed by demons and Jesus wants to set you free today.
It's real. If the Holy Spirit is real, so are demonic spirits. Every spirit, that's not the Holy Spirit, is a demonic spirit. Don't open yourself up to all kinds of crazy stuff. Ain't smart.
So I'm I'm talking to this girl, this woman, and she's lonely. She feels like everybody's abandoned her. And I'm speaking to that and praying. I said, Robbie, why don't you pray? And he prayed and he said forgiveness.
I said, that's it. And I went back and I said, Daniel, ask her if there's people in her life she's never forgiven. And there was. And I had her start with forgiving her family for the things that they've done to her. She forgave it and rebuked the spirit, tell her to come out.
They prayed, got a call and told her to walk through everybody that she hadn't forgive, told Daniel to. Got a call about an hour later. She completely free. She went from depressed and suicidal to joy in her face and laughing. That's not just for Pakistan.
That's for you guys. Maybe you're lacking hunger in your life because you've been holding on to this unforgiveness and it's time to forgive, not saying what they did was okay, but it's time to release it to the Lord so that you can love them despite what they did, just like Jesus loves you despite what you did. I mean, don't play games. We're in a war that Jesus won, and the enemy doesn't want you to believe that it's already over and that it's already been won. And so he's attacking your life in multiple areas to keep you from walking in the promises that God has for you, to cause you to be distracted and doubting and wavering back and forth.
And Jesus is is saying, come on. Get up. Let's walk this thing out. It's time to win. Quit playing games.
It's time to go after him with everything you have so you can experience the reward of full freedom in every area of your life. But I tried, pastor, I held on to these promises and I didn't see them come come through in my life, so I gave up. And now, I'm not free in that area. Well, I wanna encourage you. John-8:31, so Jesus said to the Jews who had believed in him, these are believers, If you abide in my word, another version says, if you remain in my word, you are truly my disciples.
There's many who start and receive and believe the word with excitement, but allow the cares of this life to choke them out. There's many who start and believe the word with excitement, but allow the sun, the scorching of the the heat of the day, the trials of the life, of this life to burn them out because they don't have deep root in the word. They haven't been seeking and hungering after him and remaining, so there's no root. They just had some cool experiences. Let me tell you, the cool experiences won't change you from the inside out.
You gotta have cool experiences that cause you to get deep in His word and allow it to root deep down in your life, so that when other experiences come, you have something to draw on. And you're not gonna do that without hunger, Seeking after him, getting in his word, day in and day out, even when your flesh doesn't feel like it. When you feel a little twinge of hunger in your stomach, what do you do? You go eat. Americans are hardcore about it.
3 times a day, if I miss my lunch, I'm having problems. Get angry. Hangry. My wife can tell when I've missed my lunch with the Lord. You should be so full of the spirit and so consistent in his word that those closest to you can tell if you miss 1 meal.
You miss 1 meal, you start to get, I need him. I want him with everything that I have. I'm thirsty. He's satisfying. So satisfying that I can't help but want more.
If you abide in my word, are truly my disciples. And then it says this, and you will know the truth and the truth will set you free. That's a promise. It's a promise from God. Knowing the truth, what is what is that talking about?
It's not talking about a head knowledge. It's talking about the same kind of knowledge that it was in 2 Peter-1. The life knowledge where you really know him because you heard in your mind, you heard with your ear, you just didn't leave it there because pride puffs up, or knowledge puffs up. There's a lot of people that have a lot of head knowledge about the scripture, but they're not living it in any area of their life. They're just a bunch of religious punks, walking around with a puffed up head, hitting everybody with their knowledge of the word, and pushing people away from Jesus.
Don't be that guy. If your life isn't experiencing what you think you know, you probably shouldn't try to push it on others because your words will have no authority. You want the authority of a life lived. That you you you read it, you you remained in it, and you lived it. And now, you speak it, there's an authority of a life lived.
The Holy Spirit anointing is happening and pushing it through into other people's lives. It's the anointing that breaks the yoke. The anointing comes when you start living out what you're reading. Because your life's on the rock, Jesus Christ. Someone had a dream.
By the way, lot of people in our church have dreams. If you if you listen to the sermon that Gabe preached on dreams, you'll probably start having dreams too. It's 1 of the ways that God speaks, it's in the word. In the in the last days, people will have dreams and visions. Seek after it, I bet he he starts giving them to you.
If you don't, you probably won't get them. Somebody in our church had a dream about a rock. Storm came, their house crashed, and somehow in the midst of the storm, they clinged to the rock and stood on the rock. Rock's Jesus. The storm stopped, and this person started looking around the beach, and there's all these dead fish.
Lifted the rock and there were some crushed by the rock. It's biblical. I wanna be the 1 that falls on the rock and and broken by the rock, but those that resist the rock, they're crushed by it. Don't resist Jesus. Allow him to break your life.
There's too many too many fish, which represents people that have died because they rejected the gospel and they die and they go to hell. I know it's tough, but when *Jesus* is a good gift and now is the day of salvation, he's offering it to everyone. But if you reject him in this life, God's not gonna make you be with him for eternity. He's gonna give you what you chose. Today's the "day of salvation".
He loves you. I wanna do 2 things. I got 2 more verses. Before I do the second thing, wanna do 1 thing. I'm not gonna call you forward in this moment, but I do believe that there are people here who are hearing this message.
You know that you don't know God. You may have experienced some on the outside, but you've never really been born of the spirit where he came to live on the inside, to lead you like a father leads a son or a daughter. Where where where you've never really said, Jesus you are my Lord, which means Jesus, I'm gonna follow you instead of myself. I'm gonna live for what you say instead of what I feel. In that moment, he gives you a new heart.
And I think there's a lot of people that have done that and have been far from him for a while, But I There's some people in here that have never done that before. And as I'm saying it, your heart knows that what I'm saying is true. That's the Holy Spirit saying, run to Jesus, he will give you rest. If that's you and you know you need to be "born again", you know you need Jesus. Look, we're in a end times generation where people are bold, and I ain't trying to hide it.
So I'm not gonna ask you to come forward, but if that's you, you know you need Jesus, I want you to just stand up right now. I see you, sir. Man, no, no, stay standing, stay standing. I'm just gonna talk to you for a second. Any there's there's other people in here.
Who else? It's a bold man. It's a man who understands need for a savior. It's a big deal. Who else?
Who wants to stand up there? I see you. Praise the Lord. Come on, that's 2. Just stay there.
That's hunger. The gospel is **creating hunger** in men. Who else? I need Jesus. I've never been born again.
I'm ready. I'm ready to give my life to him. Is there anyone else? I see you. Praise the Lord.
Who else? Is there anyone else? There's something about confessing before men, confessing before people. Jesus said, confess me before people, I'll confess you before my father. Right?
There's a hunger right now. Who else would be willing to stand up and say, that's me? I'm just gonna pray for you right where you are. We're gonna pray together. We'll be bold enough to say, that's me.
Alright. I'm gonna ask you a couple questions, then we're gonna pray. Do you believe that Jesus died on the cross and rose again for you? Just shake your head yes if that's yeah. Okay.
Are you ready to give him your life? Yes? Yes or no? Is that a yes or no? Yes.
Praise the Lord. Yes. So you're saying, I'm gonna follow what you say instead of what I feel. I'm gonna follow what you say instead of what I've always thought about myself. And if I mess up, I'm gonna fall forward because I trust you.
Is that true? Is that true? Is that true? Okay. I want you to For you sir, because you're holding your baby, just raise your other hand.
I want you to raise both hands as a sign of surrender, not to me, to Jesus. Close your eyes and imagine a good heavenly father before you. And I want you to say this out loud. And just just say it out loud, not worrying about everybody around you. Say, I've been living for myself.
I ask you to forgive me of my sin. Come into my life and make me new. Right now, choose to follow you. Teach me what that means. You, Jesus.
Your word says I'm forgiven. I receive that. Holy Spirit, come into my life. I receive you right now. Thank you, Jesus.
Let me pray for you. Father, I pray for these 3. Let them experience your presence right now. *Lord*, thank you that you've touched them, that they're yours, your daughter and your 2 sons. They're new.
New creations in you is what your word says. The old is gone. All they're completely forgiven, What and past, present, and future. Holy Spirit, I ask you to give them dreams about the purposes you've created them for. *Lord*, restore them and and reconcile them with with people and relationships they never thought possible.
Let them experience your life more than ever before. In Jesus name. Would you guys give a big old hand clap for each? The bible says that you're you can be seated. The bible says that you're a part of the family of God.
Not just this church family, but there's a family of millions, even billions around the world. And the same Holy Spirit that's in you lives in you now. Lives in us, lives in them. As you pursue Christ, he will reveal himself to you in major ways. *Amen*?
2 more things, and I'm done. You guys okay? *John-3:34*. Jesus is speaking and it says, for for whom God has sent utters the words of God for he gives the spirit without measure. Another version says, he gives the spirit "without limit".
That's the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is our comforter. Jesus said it's good for me to go because unless I go, Holy Spirit won't be sent. The Holy Spirit is the way that we relate to God, it's the way that we hear his voice. He is the grace that empowers us to do what we couldn't do on our own.
He is our presence, our his presence in our life and through our life. It's through the Holy Spirit that all this happens. He's the power to be a witness. The gifts of the spirit come come by the Holy Spirit. The power of the spirit, the character of the spirit, the fruit of the spirit, love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness, meekness, faithfulness is in there, self control.
Anyway, they all come by the Holy Spirit. And he gives the spirit without limits. Some of you are like, well, wait a second. The Holy Spirit's been limited in my life. I haven't been experiencing the fruit of the spirit as I should.
Or I haven't experienced the power of the spirit as it talks about. My question to you is, have you been seeking him? *1 Corinthians-14 says, eagerly desire the gifts of the spirit. Those are powerful gifts so that the anointing* can flow through your life and impact other people. Have you been eagerly desiring it?
Have you been seeking him or have you put it on the shelf as just some cool thing that pastors get to do? Guess what? It's for every 1 of you. Bible says, I'll pour out my spirit on all flesh. Paul said, 2 Corinthians-6:12, that it wasn't him who was limiting the Corinthians.
Says they were restricted or limited by their own affections. You wanna know why the Holy Spirit's limited in our lives? It's because of our affections. What we've been seeking after. If we're experiencing a limit of the Holy Spirit in any area of our life, we're probably being yoked to something other than Jesus in that area of our life.
Jesus said, "my yoke is easy", my burden is light. I'm doing this, it's like a wooden a wooden yoke with a neck circle that goes on the oxen. If I'm yoked to anything other than Jesus, I'm gonna feel the weight and burden of that thing. But if I'm yoked to Jesus, he carries the main part of the load so it's easy and light, empowered by the Holy Spirit to do the thing, which is amazing. Man, I want more of him every single day.
I want to experience what I'm not experiencing of him in my life that he says that I could, that his promises say, I want to go after in the Holy Spirit seeking. Help me, Lord. I I need you. I need more of you. No matter what it takes, teach me.
If I need to pray longer, I'll pray longer. If I need to read more, I'll read more. If I need to get around other believers that know this, that I don't. Lord, show me. I wanna know, Lord.
I wanna seek out pastors and leaders that are walking in areas of you that I don't know and learn from them. Because your word says to consider your leaders, consider their way of life, and imitate their faith. Teach me, Lord. Show me, Lord. Whatever it takes, so that I can be the man that you created me to be to walk out every single purpose you created me for.
I don't wanna miss out on the good work you created me for that I should walk in because my affections were for something else. For comfort, for entertainment. Those are great things, but Lord, first, you're my Lord of my life. Not the TV, not social media, not this, not that, not the other, not money. No.
Your Lord and all of those other things are to be used for your purposes and to enjoy with you and presence with you, Lord God. I'm going after you first. Let me pray. Holy Spirit, I ask you to come. Baby, you can stay right there for a second.
Because I just want you to be able to experience this too. Holy Spirit, I ask you to come. I just want you this is touching your heart, I want you to put your hands out just like receiving. *Lord*, we seek after you right now. We want more of you.
Holy Spirit, come. Burn in us a deeper desire for you. I ask you to move on these people. Create a hunger. Holy Spirit, we invite your presence.